(This is a first draft without edits! Just getting thoughts out.)
I saw a post on Instagram that was talking about an Artist's Journey. Some people had told this artist that she was a genius; others, talked about how she made art like an unhinged toddler. That got me to thinking about the pleasures of how a toddler makes art. For the toddler, you're offered a big crayon or marker, and a piece of paper. And you just make. marks. At first, they don't even mean anything. Then you start learning letters and symbols. Soon enough you're drawing things in your small little world. Mommy. Daddy. Dog. Cat. House.
Unhinged or not, toddlers can be given a few squeezes of paint and then they can dip their hands in it. By some sort of magic magic, they are making marks. New ones! Learned ones! Whatever they want. They have all the ambition in the world. Nothing has been squished out of them. They're just doing whatever. And isn't that kind of great?
I want that part of my journey back. Just to be given a large crayon and told to go nuts.
I'm in an interesting place on my journey of teaching. I haven't actually been in a classroom, teaching my subject, after I graduated. But, even though I'm not physically in the room, I've had others ask me for advice on how to draw.
Maybe its because I'm put on the spot, but my mind blanks when others ask this from me. Actually, I feel that my partner is way more qualified to be a teacher, because they can come up with answers and solutions off the cuff. I have to ruminate on something, let it stew in my brain.
Anyways, others have been asking me how to draw. And I was approaching this in ways where I could provide lessons. You should be able to draw an egg-shaped brain if you draw this way. Divide the head this way and place your eyes here, your nose there, and lips here. But I wonder if that is the right approach sometimes?
I've been thinking about the students' goals here... If you're a hobbyist, and its just for fun what do you get out of being told you need to spend hours on end studying from life? From observing still lives or drawing buildings or perspective? In reality, you're looking to draw your favorite characters looking pretty right? I think those sorts of hobbyists don't always need to go down the road of serious teaching. A few pointers here and there.
I liked being in art class because it allowed me to sketch and draw to my heart's content without really being punished for doing so. But... I wouldn't say there was anything effectively taught there. Sorry all my art teachers -- you all were very nice.* But I found that I was usually left to my own devices. In high school, a lot of my teaching came from books from the library -- I think I managed to get my hands on Richard Williams' Animation book as well.
I poured into these books, copied from the masters. And I think my point in saying this is that its okay to study from "the masters" that you want to study from. Yeah, studying from life is important, but what are your goals here? Art shows? Or just to draw your weird fan fiction of Spock and Scooby Doo meeting and solving the mystery that Loki has been stealing everyone's timelines?
What was that fan fiction I just created?
Needless to say, if you want to draw anything, you have to study it a lot. For an example, when I worked at REDACTED RAT I really really really wanted to know how to draw Charles Entertainment. So, so, so much. But unlike Disney art, where I could easily find old concept art and character model sheets, there was nothing for him. I had been teaching myself how to draw from studying animation books after all.
When you are planted at the store front with a Chuck E. Cheese mascot hovering over the doors, with a complacent smile complacently, his hand on his cheek, and you already knew how to study from the masters, you're going to copy that drawing. a lot. I drew Chuck E. so much in the next five years and I drew my fan characters.
I think that's okay. To just want to look at something and go "THAT. I want to make the right marks to make THAT. Only that. I'm doing that."
Sorry, this always happens when I talk about that damn rat. I think a lot of what happens when kids learn how to write or draw is that there is some bitter teacher, who shouldn't be teaching in the first place, who will crush some kids' dreams. That's why I had wanted to become a teacher in the first place: to make sure kids weren't being squashed.
But where does that leave the adults who are missing out on drawing? On making the marks that they want to? Why can't adults also be a little unhinged, using whatever bright colors they want?
Anyways, this is a weird tangent and I think the point is getting away from me. Enjoy some art of the rat man.